PHILADELPHIA — When the 76ers acquired Andrew Bynum during the offseason, the point of doing so was obvious — to have Andrew Bynum play 40 minutes per game and be the dominating center he typically is.

Bynum hasn’t played a minute this season, and he isn’t going to for a while. And when any team is without a player of his significance, an equally significant drop off can be expected.

In Wednesday night’s humbling, 94-76 home loss to the previously winless Detroit Pistons, the Sixers were outrebounded by 19 and were able to turn 11 of their 59 missed shots into offensive boards. That followed a 105-96 loss to Milwaukee in which the Sixers were beaten by 17 on the glass and had an incomprehensibly soft total of four offensive rebounds.

Friday night the Sixers host the Utah Jazz, who have two of the top 15 rebounders in the NBA in Al Jefferson (11.8 rpg) and Paul Millsap (9.7) in their starting frontcourt, and have Derrick Favors (7.4 rpg) clearing the glass while playing about 24 minutes per night off the bench.

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It’s safe to say that opponents are starting to catch on to the fact that the Sixers (4-4) are having problems handling strong, aggressive frontcourt players. And while Spencer Hawes, Thad Young and Lavoy Allen saw plenty of minutes at the power forward and center positions last season, the Sixers gave up a lot of their veteran brute strength when they used the amnesty clause to escape the final year of salary-cap penalization for Elton Brand’s contract, and also let Tony Battie hobble into retirement. Battie’s replacement has been Kwame Brown.

Let’s just say that hasn’t been going so well.

Unless general manager Tony DiLeo can find either a veteran free agent or work a trade to get his team some frontcourt bulk, the Sixers need to figure out a way to not get manhandled on the glass night in and night out while Bynum’s interminably slow-healing knee rests.

“Unfortunately I knew there were going to be growing pains,” Doug Collins said after practice Thursday. “We’re still trying to figure out who we are.

“I want the team we put on the floor every single night is reflective of hard work and blue-collar and everything that Philadelphia is, and last night was not one of those nights. But maybe you have to have one of those nights. Maybe it leads to a lot of self-reflection.

“Sometimes the answer is you just have to go out, play tough and take the fight to somebody else. I think what’s happened here at home (the last two games) is that teams have taken the fight to us. And we better not do that with Utah.”

The need to bide time as Bynum misses what will be at least half the regular season goes beyond the need to overcome some weaknesses in the frontcourt. It also means getting some players to embrace roles they thought were going to change with Bynum’s arrival. At the top of that list is Thad Young, who selflessly took on the need to play him as an undersized power forward from off the bench each of the last two seasons. Collins’ vision had Young bring freed up from some low-post duties thanks to Bynum’s dominance there. Instead, Young has been thrusted into a starting power forward role, where he is averaging 7.4 rebounds per night.

That’s pretty impressive for an undersized guy. The problem is, Young still is an undersized guy, and he’s playing alongside an underachieving Allen (six rebounds per 36 minutes) and Hawes, who after an impressive performance in the Sixers’ season-opener has devolved into the emotional train wreck who can’t stay on the court.

“I think teams are coming in and saying, ‘They have a couple of big guys down, so we’re going to try and be physical to start,’” Young said. “And they have been doing it. I think we’ve only won one or two first quarters, so (opponents) have been getting out of the gate fast on us.”

Once a team starts getting a reputation for playing a little soft, it’s tough to shake it, especially when the opponent has the tools to keep exposing that weakness.

“We’re going to see a big frontline (Friday),” Collins said of Utah. “They will put Millsap at (small forward) and play Favors alongside Jefferson. Not all teams are able to have that physicality, but against the teams that do, we have to be much tougher.”